Topic: Religious Leaders
“When you walk into the voting booth, I’ve compared it to the holy of holies in the ancient temple. A curtain is closed behind you. You are alone with your God and your vote. People will cast their votes listening to their hearts,” says Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance. More
“So much of spirituality is about sanding ourselves down, smoothing ourselves out so that we’re nice and shiny. But the fact is the jagged edges of our humanity are what actually connect us to God and to one another,” says Nadia Bolz-Weber, the tattooed founding pastor of The House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver. More
“This most traditional of women is a very modern saint,” says Rev. James Martin, SJ, author of “My Life with the Saints.” “She is a saint for doubters and seekers and people who wonder where God is in their lives.” More
“If you were to identify Catholic prophets in the twentieth century,” says Georgetown University professor Chester Gillis, Daniel Berrigan “would be right there with Dorothy Day or Thomas Merton.” His activism, adds Gillis, is “rooted in prayer. It is done out of the commitment to the Gospel. That differentiates it from all the other secular movements” Daniel Berrigan, SJ died on April 30, 2016. He was 94 years old. More
“There’s no abstract family. There’s no ideal family,” says Father Tom Reese, SJ, senior analyst at National Catholic Reporter. The pope, he adds, “is tired of the church being judgmental and laying down rules. Instead, he wants us to walk with these couples with compassion. Treat them as Jesus would treat them.” More
“I look at crime or violence as a violation of relationships. Some people are harmed, some people do that harm. So the role of restorative justice is to repair, as best we can, those relationships” says Father Dave Kelly. He directs the Precious Blood Ministry of Reconciliation on Chicago’s South Side, a center that offers support to survivors of gun violence. More
“Islam believes fundamentally that the spiritual and material worlds are inextricably connected. Faith is a force that should deepen our concern for our worldly habitat, for embracing its challenges, and for improving the quality of human life.” More
Pope Francis may soon release his greatly anticipated response to a key bishops’ meeting on family issues that took place last fall. At that meeting, bishops discussed the church’s response to a host of issues, including some that are very controversial. The bishops were especially divided over whether the church should change its rules against communion for divorced Catholics who have remarried. Many American Catholics have been pushing for that change and others. More
“The story of migration is rooted in our history as Catholics,” says Jeanne Atkinson, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. “It’s everything from the Jewish people’s exile in Exodus to the holy family’s flight to Egypt…This is who we are as American Catholics. We are an immigrant people and an immigrant church.” More
“If we look back in our families, we find that we’re all immigrants. Whoever they were, they were the stranger, they were the people who were looked upon as foreigners. For us to turn over and suddenly be prejudiced against some newcomers, this is denying our own heritage.” More